While Pakistanis are protesting against the Martial Law (or so called Emergency) and attack on judiciary, the Harvard Law School has announced Medal of Freedom for Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary. I first heard the news on Geo and couldn’t believe if it were really true but later HLS website has also confirmed this news. Medal of Freedom is the highest honor of Harvard Law School and is awarded to individuals who have worked to uphold the legal system’s fundamental commitment to freedom, justice, and equality.
According to Harvard Law School’s Dean Elena Kagan, this award has been conferred to assure the solidarity of Harvard Law School with Justice iftikhar Chaudhary and Pakistan’s valiant lawyers in their heroic struggle. The previous recipients of this prestigious award include people like former South African President Nelson Mandela. I also found it pleasantly surprising that HLS have have NOT used word former Chief Justice for Justice Iftikhar even though our own Pakistani media is calling him former Chief Justice of Pakistan.
According to Harvard Law School website:
Following last week’s military crackdown in Pakistan and the detention of hundreds of lawyers, the Harvard Law School Association has decided to award Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry its highest honor: The Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom. Chaudhry was detained after he convened the Pakistani Supreme Court to declare the current state of emergency imposed by General Pervez Musharraf to be null and void.
Although Chaudhry has been placed under house arrest and is not free to leave Pakistan, Dean Elena Kagan has reached out to the chief justice regarding the award and hopes that he’ll be able to come to the Law School to receive it when the state of emergency is lifted.
“As lawyers who value freedom and the rule of law, we at Harvard Law School want Chief Justice Chaudhry and all of the courageous lawyers in Pakistan to know that we stand with them in solidarity,” said Kagan. “We are proud to be their colleagues in the cause of justice, and we will do all we can to press for the prompt restoration of constitutionalism and legality in Pakistan.”
Hundreds of lawyers and other critics of Musharraf have been detained since the emergency rule was established more than a week ago. HLS graduates and practicing lawyers in Pakistan Babar Sattar LL.M. ‘02 and Tariq Hassan LL.M. ‘76 S.J.D. ‘80 have spoken out in protest of the suspension of the constitution.
To raise awareness and further promote discussion about the events in Pakistan, the Harvard South Asia Initiative will be hosting campus-wide events on Friday, November 16.
The Medal of Freedom was established by Harvard Law School to honor the achievements of individuals who have worked to uphold the legal system’s fundamental commitment to freedom, justice, and equality. To symbolize this commitment, the award bears the image of Charles Hamilton Houston, whose leadership of the crusade that culminated in the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education exemplifies the highest ideals of our democracy.
Past recipients of the Medal of Freedom include the members of the Brown v. Board of Education litigation team and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Isn’t it amazing that just one word NO, which Chief Justice said to Gen Musharraf on March 09 when he tried to remove him, has changed the course of history. Since then, Justice Iftikhar has probably become one of the most popular man in Pakistan and Gen. Musharraf the most unpopular man. I wonder if Gen. Musharraf would release him from detention and allow him to collect this prestigious award. Pakistani are not honored by world’s top institutes like HLS everyday.
Not sure how this medal would help the current situation in Pakistan. Did HLS know about things like these…..
Start Quote”
Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Islamabad
Pakistan
My Lord:
I write this letter as an Officer of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; as an Advocate enrolled in the apex Court since 1984 and in the High Courts since 1972; as an Attorney who has paid more income tax from his earnings in the legal profession than many of my friends, colleagues and seniors elevated to the Bench; and as a stake-holder in the dispensation of justice, intimately and vitally interested in the functioning of the Supreme Court.
I believed that you were vigorous, capable of lifting up the Supreme Court, creating an espirit-de-corps among your brother judges, restoring the dignity and grandeur of the apex Court, particularly considering the long tenure before you.
Alas this has not come about.
I am not perturbed by your insistence on protocol (despite my belief that the Chief Justice would rise in the eyes of everybody if he walked from his residence to the Supreme Court and hooters, police escort, flags is just fluff, not the substance of an office).
I am mildly amused at your desire to be presented a guard of honour in Peshawar. I am titillated by the appropriation of aMercedes-Benz car or is it cars, the use of the Government of the Punjab’s airplane to offer Fateha in Multan, to Sheikhupura for Fateha on a Government of the Punjab helicopter, to Hyderabad on a Government of the Sind’s plane for attending a High Court function, the huge amount spent in refurbishing the chamber and residence of the Chief Justice, the reservation for yourself of a wing in Supreme Court Judges guest house in Lahore, the permanent occupation by the Supreme Court of the official residence of the Chief Justice of Sind, who per force lives in the basement of his father’s house. As his class fellow in the Government College, Lahore, I can vouch that living in the basement will do him no harm.
I am not perturbed that Dr. Arsalaan (your son) secured 16/100 in the English paper for the Civil Services Examination, that there is a case against him in some court in Baluchistan, that from the Health Department in Baluchistan he has shifted to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), that he has obtained training in the Police Academy, that he reportedly drives a BMW 7-Series car, that there is a complaint against him with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
My grievances and protests are different.
I am perturbed that the Supreme Court should issue a clarificatory statement on his behalf. I am perturbed that Justice (Retd.) Wajihuddin Ahmed should be constrained to advise you on television that “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others”. I am perturbed that the Chief Justice should summon Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman to his chambers on Dr. Arsalaan’s account.
I am appalled that you announce decisions in Court, while in the written judgment an opposite conclusion is recorded.
In the Petition for leave to appeal filed by Dr. Sher Afghan Niazi, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (in which Respondent’s Counsels were Mr. Khalid Anwar and Mr. Qadir Saeed), you refused to grant leave in open Court and yet in the written order, leave was granted to Dr. Sher Afghan Niazi.
On 15-2-2007, Mr. Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim complained that in open Court you had accepted his appeal but dismissed the same in the judgement, subsequently recorded.
If Mr. Khalid Anwar, a former Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, and Mr Fakrhuddin, Senior Counsel, are treated in this manner, the fate of lesser known lawyers would certainly be far worse.
My grievances also concern the manner in which the last and highest court of appeal is dispensing justice, under your leadership.
My Lord, the dignity of lawyers is consistently being violated by you. We are treated harshly, rudely, brusquely and nastily. We are not heard. We are not allowed to present our case. There is little scope for advocacy. The words used in the Bar Room for Court No. 1 are “the slaughter house”. We are cowed down by aggression from the Bench, led by you. All we receive from you is arrogance, aggression and belligerence. You also throw away the file, while contemptuously announcing: “This is dismissed”.
Yet this aggression is not for everyone. When Mr. Sharifuddin Pirzada appears, your Lordship’s demeanour and appearance is not just sugar and honey. You are obsequious to the point of meekness. So apart from violating our dignity, which the Constitution commands to be inviolable, we suffer discrimination in your Court.
I am not raising the issue of verbal onslaughts and threats to Police Officers and other Civil Servants, who have the misfortune to be summoned, degraded and reminded that “This is the Supreme Court”.
The way in which My Lord conducts proceedings is not conducive to the process of justice. In fact, it obstructs due process and constitutes contempt of the Supreme Court itself.
I am pained at the wide publicity to cases taken up by My Lord in the Supreme Court under the banner of Fundamental Rights. The proceedings before the Supreme Court can conveniently and easily be referred to the District and Sessions Judges. I am further pained by the media coverage of the Supreme Court on the recovery of a female. In the bar room, this is referred to as a “Media Circus”.
My Lord, this communication may anger you and you are in any case prone to get angry in a flash, but do reflect upon it. Perhaps you are not cognizant of what your brother judges feel and say about you.
My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history. The judgement about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.
Yours faithfully,
NAEEM BOKHARI
Advocate
Supreme Court of
Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan
”
End Quote
This is a great day for Pakistan, its constitution, and the upholders of this constitution. There was a second event of pride for us all Pakis when Aitezaz Ahsan’s young son (Ali Ahsan, I think) addressed the city of New York lawyers on the steps of a courthouse, who came to show their solidarity with the lawyers’ community in Pakistan.
HATS OFF to honorable Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry….
Chief Justice Teray Jan Nisar
Bayshumaar Bayshumaar
rushdie was awarded a knighthood for his OUTSTANDING skills.
now there’s another award for someone who dont even know why he is being awarded.
Harvard can always send the award by FedEx or DHL to the deposed CJ’s house in Islamabad. He’ll be happy to receive it in Pakistan as it will be difficult for him to stand in line at the US Embassy in Islamabad to apply for his visa, then wait for about 3 months before the Homeland Security clears him and then dependant on the mood of the visa officer sitting behind the visa window, he may or may not get the US visa. So why bother? Thanks again Harvard for choosing a CJ not for his ability in the process of Justice but rather his politics of it!
The REAL and ONLY Chief Justice of Pakistan, honorable Justice Iftikhar Chauhdry, has immortalized himself by his heroic stand against the tyranny of the latest military dictator. He gave the people of Pakistan hope that one day Pakistan could also see the rule of law and respect for the sacred constitution. And that the nation would not be run over by greedy, treacherous generals willing to sell their country for a few dollars over and over again.
It is wonderful to see the great man being honored like this (though other judges who’ve refused to bow before the dictator also deserve to share this medal) but all this is nothing compared to the respect an average Pakistani like me has for the illegally detained and still Chief Justice of Pakistan.
If the dictator thinks that post-martial law, we are going to forget about Justice Iftikhar Chauhdry and the other honorable judges of the Supreme Court, he is only deluding himself.
Anthem of resistance … Bol key lab azaad. One of the best videos on our struggle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv7YdFVe2Is
www.boltapakistan.com